Seahawks to face Broncos in Super Bowl showdown

DENVER - Agence France-Presse

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate celebrates as his team books its place in the Super Bowl. The Seahawks won the National Football Championship title and will appear in the Super Bowl for the first time since 2005. AFP photo

Peyton Manning's record-setting Denver Broncos pass attack will face the Seattle Seahawks in next month's Super Bowl showdown after both teams captured tense home playoff triumphs on Sunday.
 
Seattle, who boast the best defense in NFL, forced three turnovers in the fourth quarter to beat San Francisco 49ers 23-17 in the National Conference final while Manning led the Broncos over the New England Patriots 26-16 in the American Conference final.
 
After sharing the NFL's best record at 13-3 in the regular season, the Broncos and Seahawks will meet in Super Bowl 48 on February 2 at suburban New York.
 
It will be Denver's seventh trip to the Super Bowl but the first since the Broncos' only wins in 1998 and 1999, and the second visit for the Seahawks, who lost to Pittsburgh in 2006.
 
"This feels even sweeter," Seahawks owner Paul Allen said.
 
The Seahawks trailed until the fourth quarter, when Russell Wilson connected with Jermaine Kearse on a 35-yard touchdown pass to put Seattle ahead to stay and the hosts took away the ball from the 49ers three times.
 
"This is really special," said Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. "This team was ready to finish. They knew we weren't in the lead. That didn't matter. They were going to come out here and do what they needed to do." Manning, who set one-season NFL passing yardage and touchdown records last month for the most prolific scoring offense in NFL history, completed 32-of-43 passes for 400 yards and two touchdowns.
 
"It's very rewarding when you put in so much hard work and it pays off with the win in a big game," Manning said.
 
"We've kept our nose to the grindstone, kept persevering and it feels great to get this win." New England's Tom Brady leads the all-time rivalry with Manning 10-5 but fell to 2-2 in their playoff meetings, which in each prior case were taken by the eventual Super Bowl champion.
 
"We just didn't make enough plays," Brady said. "We dug a pretty big hole and they played really well. Peyton played great. They just made more plays than we did. They were certainly the better team today." The 49ers, who lost last year's Super Bowl to Baltimore, saw their hopes end on Malcolm Smith's interception with 22 seconds remaining.
 
"It was a 15-round fight," 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said. "It was a great fight by our guys... A man can be destroyed. He can't be defeated." Broncos coach John Fox, who underwent heart surgery in November and steered Carolina to the Super Bowl 10 years ago, said: "I couldn't be prouder of a group of men in my life." Denver's Matt Prater kicked four field goals while Manning flipped touchdown passes of 1 yard to Jacob Tamme and 3 yards to Demaryius Thomas.
 
The Patriots, in their first road playoff game since 2007, fell behind 13-3 at half-time and Brady, who rallied the Patriots from a 24-0 deficit to defeat Denver in the regular season for the greatest comeback of his career, struggled most of the day against Denver's defenders.
 
New England pulled within 13 points on Brady's 7-yard touchdown pass to Julian Edelman with 9:26 remaining but Prater added a 54-yard field goal for a 26-10 Denver edge.
 
Brady scored on a 5-yard run with 3:07 to play, but Denver's defense stopped Shane Vereen's 2-point conversion run attempt to create the final margin and the Broncos ran out the clock from there.
 
At Seattle, the 49ers took a 10-0 lead on Phil Dawson's 25-yard field goal and a 1-yard Anthony Dixon touchdown plunge that was set up by a 58-yard run by quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
 
In front of a raucous Seattle crowd, Steven Hauschka kicked a 32-yard field goal to pull the Seahawks within 10-3 at half-time.
 
Seattle's Marshawn Lynch broke up the middle and ran 40 yards for a touchdown to lift the hosts level.
 
San Francisco responded when Kaepernick connected with Anquan Boldin on a 26-yard touchdown pass to put the 49ers ahead 17-10.
 
Hauschka kicked a 40-yard field goal to pull Seattle within 17-13 after three quarters, then Wilson tossed the go-ahead TD pass to Kearse and Hauschka added a 47-yard field goal for the final points.
 
Kaepernick drove the 49ers toward a potential winning touchdown late in the game but Seattle's Richard Sherman, who led the NFL with eight interceptions, deflected a pass into Smith's hands to end the threat.
 
"That's as sweet as it gets," Sherman said. "We knew we had to finish it off." The NFL championship spectacle at East Rutherford, New Jersey, will be the first in Super Bowl history staged outdoors in a cold-climate city.
 
The weather forecast is for the coldest conditions in Super Bowl history with a chance of rain or snow showers and temperatures between 37 and 25 degrees Fahrenheit (3 to minus 4 Celsius).